The present invention relates generally to a hand splint and, more particularly, to a therapeutic hand splint support adaptable to a specific patient for positioning the patient's wrist, hand and/or fingers at a desired position.
Individuals who experience numerous medical conditions, such as neurological diseases or impairments, strokes, arthritis, orthopedic injuries and muscular diseases, often suffer from flexion, extension, or contractures to the wrist, hand and fingers. These conditions may result in a loss of range of motion or may require immobilization or functional support. Regardless of the amount of the contracture, a common goal is to restore at least a substantial portion of the functionality to the patient's injured hand. In order to accomplish this goal, patients typically undergo physical therapy that includes applying braces and splints particularly developed for alleviating and rehabilitating such physical conditions of the hands, wrists and fingers.
Numerous conventional splints have been developed for use in treating contractures of the wrist and fingers. For example, U.S. Pat No. 4,977,890 discloses a hand splint that includes a forearm support and a wrist rod bendable upwardly and downwardly at a pivot point to position a palmer device at a desired unilateral position. Another patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,971, discloses an adjustable wrist splint having a forearm support attached to a hand support by a ball-and-socket joint that may be locked to a desired position by tightening a series of screws. Yet another somewhat cumbersome approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,502, in which a web-like forearm support is attached to a collar that may be adjusted by aligning a pair of holes in the collar with selected pairs of a plurality of holes in the forearm support and locking the collar to the support with screws. Further analysis of these and other prior art readily leads one to the conclusion that such conventional splints and braces either provide a complex apparatus difficult for use by a therapist or otherwise fail to accommodate the various amounts of radial and ulnar deviation that often accompany such contractures. In addition, conventional apparatus that may provide desired adjustability usually requires additional tools or otherwise includes complex adjustment mechanisms for adjusting the splint for a particular patient. Accordingly, there remains a great need for an improved hand splint that is not only relatively simple in construction, but that also provides an effective and manageable therapeutic solution that may be easily applied by a therapist or technician.